Christ’s Burial

Is there an illustration of the burial of Christ in the Old Testament teaching concerning the offerings? “And the priest shall put on his linen garment, and his linen breeches shall he put upon his flesh, and take up the ashes which the fire hath consumed with the burnt offering on the altar, and he shall put them beside the altar. And he shall put off his garments, and put on other garments, and carry forth the ashes without the camp unto a clean place” (Lev. 6:10-11).

The solemn care of the ashes of the burnt offering tells the story of how precious the object was which they represented. The burnt offering was wholly burnt. It was all for God, a sweet savor to the Lord. The garments the priest wore when he took the ashes from the altar and placed them beside it were not the garments he wore when he took them from beside the altar and carried them outside the camp. There is here a suggestion of the end of one priesthood when the ashes were taken from the altar, and the commencement of a new priesthood when they were carried to a clean place outside the camp.

When Nicodemus and Joseph took the body of our Lord from the cross, they broke every tie that bound them to the temple and its service. Were they of the priestly family of Aaron or of the consecrated tribe of Levi, they violated every link with the old order at Jerusalem when they deliberately handled a dead body on the eve of the Passover. They lost every claim to the privileges or service of the temple; they had completely broken with the old order.

But when they carried that body to a clean place outside the camp they were priests of a new order. They were members of that royal priesthood that is a “chosen generation, a holy nation, a peculiar people,” ordained to show forth the praises of Him who hath called us out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Pet. 2:9). They were of that “spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 2:5).

Joseph and Nicodemus carried the ashes of the Burnt Offering to a clean place outside the camp. That Burnt Offering was Christ, who was in every word and deed, in every motive and desire, a sweet savor to the Lord. He came of His own vol­untary will; He glorified God on earth and finished the work God gave Him to do.

Joseph and Nicodemus not only as new priests reverently car­ried and deposited the ashes of the Burnt Offering in that clean tomb, but when they came to the cross to do this honor for Christ, they went forth unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach (Heb. 13:13). None other of the Lord’s disciples had so much to lose as they, and they gladly sacrificed all they had. May devotion to Christ cause us also to go forth unto Him out­side this world’s approval and honors, bearing His reproach.

Excerpt from Plant of Renown.

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